Virulent
by Homegrl aka Amanda
Summary: One Shot. Ari's account on what happened when he took care of Yelena after she has been poisoned with My Love. Takes place in chapter 26 of Poison Study.


**Disclaimer: Sadly I'm not Maria V. Snyder. If I was, I'd be working on Outside In (which would be making me money), not this fanfiction (which is not).**

_This is a one shot about when Yelena was poisoned by My Love as seen through Ari. Takes place in chapter 26 of Poison Study._

As always many thanx goes to Harlequin99 for looking this over.

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_**Virulent**_

"My Love!" Yelena choked out after frantically spitting out her drink.

Janco and I were headed towards her as Valek pushed her out of the way and knocked over the poisoned bottle. He quickly swapped the bottle for a new one. Pouring three fresh glasses and apologizing to everyone for his clumsiness.

We slipped past the head table and reached Yelena in no time, but she was already convulsing on the floor.

No one seemed to notice what had transpired except for those on the dais. And of course I noticed; only because I had a bad feeling about the conference so was keeping my eye on Yelena the whole time. This was the first time Commander Ambrose had accepted an invitation from Sitia for a summit, always refusing in the past.

If anybody needed a perfect opportunity to try to attack the Commander then this was it.

And they did.

I picked up Yelena and cradled her carefully in my arms. Her eyes were rolled to the back of her head as she lost consciousness.

Without bringing too much attention to ourselves, Janco and I left through the back exit.

We decided to take Yelena to her room. Knowing about the poison, My Love, there wasn't much a medic could do to help. Since she had spat out the poisoned drink, she hadn't swallowed a fatal dose. So all we could do now is wait it out and make sure she doesn't choke on her own vomit. Yelena had a rough next couple of days ahead of her.

I decided to stay and told Janco to go back to the war room, just in case anything else would happen. Of course in his fashion, he argued, saying that he should stay just in case someone wanted to finish the job. I told him that I could handle whatever came my way and would protect her with my life, which I was willing to do.

Finally, Janco left but I could tell he was still a bit apprehensive about leaving me alone with her.

It has been a few hours and there hasn't been much change to Yelena's state. She was still in a deep slumber, yet she would mumble nonsense every once in a while.

Valek also has been by to see how she was doing. He brought a pitcher of water, setting it on her night table for when she awoke. Pouring me a glass, he asked about any changes in Yelena's state.

I reported her unchanged condition. She hasn't awakened or moved, just mumbling to herself. He nodded, taking in the information, and told me he would check in sporadically throughout the next couple of days.

The sun has long set. The only light in the room was coming from the nearby lantern, which casted many shadows among her room. I was starting to doze off, but something caught my attention.

It was Yelena. She started mumbling again, moaning and thrashing this time. Her moans were getting louder and I got up from my chair to kneel by her bed.

"Yelena." I called out to her.

She was still deep in her sleep.

"Please, I'm sorry." She pleaded. "I didn't mean to…. it won't happen again."

She was having a nightmare. I grabbed her shoulders and gently shook, trying to wake her up, but it didn't work.

"No," she moaned. "Please Reyad…not the chest."

I raised my brows in confusion. _Reyad was the man she killed_. The very reason she was given the choice of either the noose or becoming the food taste tester.

"Reyad, no!"

She was shouting, her cries becoming more and more desperate. I tried to console her, but my attempts were ineffective.

Yelena was sweating and panting; thrashing about, waving her arms around with enough strength that I often had to pin her to the bed to stop her from hurting herself. But that only made her worse.

The sounds she made could only be described as tortured and scared.

This went on for the majority of the night.

When her nightmares finally ceased, she went back to the deep slumber of before. After pouring myself another glass of cold water and draining it down, I sat back in the chair and blew out a deep sigh.

I gripped the arm rest of the chair I was perched in, my grasp was enough to make my knuckles turn white, but it stopped me from doing anything rash. I had to keep reminding myself that the bastard was dead now- lucky for him. God knows what I would do to him if he were still alive. I would've made sure that he would be the one to make the tortured noises, not Yelena.

I ended up not sleeping at all that night.

"Go, Ari. I'll watch Yelena." Janco said. It was been almost two days since Yelena went under and I haven't left her side since. I wasn't going to move either.

"No. I'm fine watching her. I want to make sure she's alright." I looked at Yelena's sleeping form. She was peaceful tonight. Unlike yesterday. I was glad to see her sleeping peacefully and not plagued by whatever - or whoever - haunted her.

Janco moved from the other side of the bed and stood next to me.

"Come on, you need your beauty sleep. And by the looks of it, you really need it." He smirked, trying to make me laugh. It wouldn't work today though. I was too concerned with Yelena.

"If he was still alive, I'd've killed him myself." I said through clenched teeth.

"Who?"

"Reyad," I answered looking over at Janco.

He was confused for a few seconds, and then responded, "General Brazell's son? What does he have to do with anything?"

"Perhaps nothing. Perhaps everything. She did kill him…and I suspect she had good reason to." I stood and looked at my partner. "If the bastard was still alive, I'd gut him myself. _Without_ a moment's hesitation."

Janco put his hand on my shoulder, shaking me from my thoughts. "Get some sleep. I'll take care of her now."

I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to leave her side.

"Hey, don't make me force you at knife point." I chuckled. Janco always had his way to exaggerate things. That laugh made me realize how tired I actually was. _Maybe I should get some sleep,_ I thought.

I let out a breath and nodded my head. I went back to the chair and grabbed my things. Stopping at the bed, I put my hand over Yelena's hair and kissed her forehead softly.

"She's been screaming and thrashing about in her sleep. Make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

"Yes, Medic Ari. Now go." He rolled his eyes.

I walked past Janco and out of the room, heading towards my own to finally get some sleep. I didn't know what to think. After all of the things Yelena had been through. No wonder she came to us for help.

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_**Virulent: adj. **__**Actively **__**poisonous; **__**intensely **__**noxious. **__**Causing **__**clinical **__**symptoms  
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**Hope you guys liked it. I may expand it sometime in the future, but I just wanted to put it out there. Let me know what you think with a review**

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